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“Hey!” I protest.

But he already has a poppy seed roll in his mouth. He chews, swallows, and sighs like he’s halfway to an orgasm.

Then he points the remaining roll at Kane. “If you ruin this, I’m taking her in the divorce.”

“There is no divorce,” Kane says.

“There will be when she realizes what you’re like.”

“I know what he’s like,” I butt in.

Niko nods solemnly. “Good. My case strengthens.”

Kane comes closer. He touches my waist and bends down to press a light kiss to my cheek. If it were anyone else, it would seem like a friendly greeting.

Coming from him, it’s like foreplay.

The man just drips sex. It’s very close to medically concerning.

“You didn’t need to bring anything,” he murmurs.

“So I’ve been informed,” I answer. “Repeatedly.”

His fingers touch the buttons of my coat. “May I?”

I swallow.

It’s a coat. He’s taking my coat, not actually undressing me in a hallway full of Russian children and armed men. My nervous system needs to get a grip.

I nod.

Kane eases the jacket from my shoulders and hangs it up. Across the hall, Anton has already relocated an entire box of honey cookies to the top shelf of a bookcase.

Yuri spots it.

“Why is that up there?”

“Because they’re for later.”

“You’re eating one.”

Anton slips the cookie into his mouth. “Quality control.”

Within ten minutes, the extended Makov Bratva has descended on everything I’ve brought like a swarm of locusts dressed in black.

One older man eats a pirozhok, grips my face between both hands, and kisses my cheeks. A woman introduces herself as his wife and tells me he shows less affection to their sons.

I try to deflect attention, but it just keeps coming. Oohs and ahhs and thank-yous and You’re so talented!

Being in the spotlight is extremely new for me. And it’s not so comfortable.

I do my best to grin and bear it, even when I want to tear my skin off and flee into a dark room all by my lonesome.

At the first opportunity, I escape into the one safe refuge I can find: the kitchen.

This is a happy space for me.

Four women are hard at work. Pots simmer on the range. Fish bake in the ovens. A huge bowl of kutya sits in the center of the island beside mushrooms, pickled vegetables, dumplings, dark bread, and cabbage rolls.